Chapter 4

     Chapter 4 is about building effective paragraphs. The first thing to building an effective paragraph is to focus on and develop your main points. Then choose a suitable pattern of organization, make your paragraphs coherent, and adjust the length of your paragraph if necessary. The exceptions to this are paragraphs such as introductions and conclusions. Paragraphs are clusters of information. These paragraphs should support your main ideas.
     In order to focus on the main points. You need to make sure that you state your main points in the topic sentence. You also need to make sure you stick to the point. There are a lot of ways to choose a suitable pattern of organization. Such as examples and illustrations, narration, description, process, comparison and contrast, analogy, cause and effect, classification and division, and definition. Any of these can occur frequently, alone or in combination. You always need to make sure you make your paragraphs coherent. To do this you need to link ideas clearly, repeat key words, maintain consistency and provide transitions between what you have wrote to the next thing you are about to write.
     This has been very helpful to learn these skills. I am also learning them in my speech class. I am really glad I took both these classes at the same time. Transition is something that I also learned in speech. Another part in this chapter that I will use in my writing is focusing on the main point. There are many times that I change the subject. I need to learn to stick to the point.